February 24, 2009

Over the course of the last six months my wife has been having great success with kettlebells. She’s not the type to go all-out. Instead she has gradually increased both her training time, intensity and weight, focusing on swings.

With great results.

The form of her legs, shoulders and abdomen have gradually changed and her fitness and strength have improved. Although she probably hasn’t lost any weight, that was never a problem. Rather she is more interested in fat loss and improving her overall bodily shape. This is where the kettlebell training has paid off.

As for me, after being sick throughout December and the long, dragging recovery in the last eight weeks I finally felt up to training again last week.

Unfortunately I only have my 24 kg kettlebell and my wife’s 8 and 12 kg kettlebells here in our appartment. So I wisely chose to start regaining my lost conditioning by beginning with swings using the 24 kg kettlebell.

Fool.

When you have fluid in your lungs you sound like a coffee machine sucking down the last despairing dregs of water. Fortunately I stopped sounding like said coffee machine after a few minutes and the state of my chest has been improving ever since. Given the damaged state of my hands and shoulder thanks to my brilliant renovation work, presses and a lot of other kettlebell work are a no go. So I’m restricting myself to pressups on the kettlebells, two-handed swings, squats and later stretches and joint mobility.

June 11, 2008

Today I discovered the subtlety of the snatch. This is an exercise which is going to fascinate me for years to come:

It combines the squat, hip-thrust and tension techniques of the swing. Then there’s grunt of the high raise, whilst “taming the arc” to prevent the kettlebell from sailing out in front of your and jerking you off balance. Then at shoulder height there’s the punch movement to bring the kettlebell over your hand without it smacking into your wrist. Then the full-body tension at the top. Then the drop and the swing back between your legs with a fully extended elbow.

And then there’s the timing, coordinating this all so that it flows.

Snatches are simply awesome and I think that this is the beginning of a wonderful friendship.

June 11, 2008

Ahh the day of the Turkish Get-Up, how I love thee.

TGU 5 x 16kg LA / RA. Performed veeeeery slowly and precisely. Hard work. On my left side I can essentially stop at any point during the movement and hold the position. The right side is significantly less pretty. That will change.

Reward:

Snatch 16kg 6 RA/LA, 8 RA/LA, 12 RA/LA, 16 RA, 12 LA. Stopped before I dropped the damned kettlebell on head. Hard work. Damn anyone who does more than 200 snatches in 10 minutes with a 24 kg kettlebell is a hero in my book.

Negative pullups.

Found myself going through kitchen to avoid the lounge door & pullup bar. May need another pullup bar. Or change the GTG rules: Every time I get close to the pullup bar I have to try one out. Heh.